Orgeat Syrup

Many classic drinks use orgeat syrup as a component of the drink. It is most famous for contributing to the original Mai Tai, but it can be found in many other classics including the Scorpion, Japanese cocktail and the traditional French drink called the Momisette. Orgeat, sometimes called “French Orgeat”, is simply a sweetened almond syrup with a little orange flower water. The origins of this syrup are interesting, and the taste and versatility in drinks is impressive. However, finding orgeat can be hard in some locals, and finding a bar that stocks it, may even harder. If you can find it, buy a bottle, you won’t be disappointed. If you can’t find a bottle, I will provide a simple recipe to make your own orgeat.

Orgeat (pronounced “or-zat”) is the French form of the word which originated from the Italian word orzata which means almond. The Spanish word Horchata or orxata has a similar origin. This syrup is an oil-water emulsion of the oils in the almond. This makes orgeat very similar to milk. Before using almonds, these emulsions were made with barley.

Note: an emulsion is simply a mixture of two unblendable substances. The two substances are separated, but because they form very small droplets, they do not easily separate out, so instead of forming layers, they form a cloudy liquid. Milk, butter, hollandaise and mayonnaise are all emulsions.

Before refrigeration, people could not store milk because it would spoil very quickly. The only people who may have drank milk would have been farmers, but for the most part, milk was turned into cheese, because it could be stored for a long time and sold as a commodity. Now if you pulled milk and butter out of your recipe book, there wouldn’t be much left to cook, especially bread and pastries. The solution hundreds of years ago were to use a stable oil-water emulsion made from barley and eventually almonds.

The oils in barley and almond are relatively stable at room temperature, and higher temperatures, so they don’t spoil very quickly. This makes them perfect for a milk like substitute. In the old days, a person’s kitchen would contain a store of barely or almonds, depending on the climate, and when you needed a source of fat, you would use these. As time progressed and food became more of an art, the use of water/oil emulsions increased.

The basic process was to take a quantity of almonds and crush them up in a mortar while adding water. This would extract the oils in the almonds and emulsify it with the water. After, letting the mush sit for a while it was filtered through muslin cloth and the resulting cloudy liquid was used in place of milk. It could even be whipped or churned to make a butter like substance. Plus, it didn’t go rancid, and there was no need for refrigeration.

As time progressed and modern amenities arrived, like fridges and fast transportation, the use of almond milk diminished. However, a cordial was made using the same process, but sugar and some flavouring (orange flower water) was added and hence forth it was known as orgeat. It is obviously used in cocktails, but also in coffees, fruit drinks like lemonade and food and desserts.

Recipe for Orgeat Syrup

Using better quality products, such as quality almonds and filtered water, will make a better orgeat syrup.

Place the almonds in a bowl and cover with cold water and allowed them to soak for 30 minutes. Drain and discard this water, then crush the almonds using a rolling pin, or you could use a food processor to chop them to a fine grind. If you need to, you can add some of the water to the food processor. Transfer the crushed almonds to a large bowl and mix them with the water, let stand for one to two hours. Place a damp cloth or cheese cloth in a mesh filter, over another bowl, and strain the almond and water mixture squeeze the cloth to extract all the liquid.

Put the chopped almonds back into the almond water, let it stand for another hour and then strain again. Repeat a third time if you wish. This is will get all the oils out of the almonds.

Note: To speed up the process you can gently heat the almond water to 50°C (125°F). If you do this, you can cut the soak times to about 15 minutes.

Pour the strained liquid into a pan, discard the almond pulp, add the sugar and cook over gentle heat, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat when the sugar is completely dissolved. Allow to cool for 15 minutes and then add the brandy or vodka and the orange flower water. Store the orgeat in a clean glass bottle.

Once the orgeat has cooled down it is ready to use. Shake yourself a Mai Tai or try a Momisette. The Mai Tai called for “French Orgeat” and this orgeat recipe will work fine, if not better, than commercial orgeat products*.

Add pastis and orgeat to a glass, fill with ice and top off with sparkling mineral water.

This is just one orgeat syrup recipe, and there are a number of variations. You can also vary the amount of water, almonds, orange flower water, etc. since orgeat is very forgiving. The recipe is fairly well balanced and gets good reviews from those who have tried it.

12 Comments on Orgeat Syrup

Very interesting post. I knew that orgeat was a key ingredient in making a proper Trader Vic’s Mai Tai, but I had no idea that it was used as a milk substitute.

When I first started studying mixology, I was unable to find orgeat syrup locally, so it would’ve been very handy to have this recipe back then. With the proliferation of gourmet coffee outlets in recent years, it’s become much easier to purchase.

I just came across this post. My current orgeat syrup (and the only one I’ve tried) is from Fee Brothers. I don’t really dislike it, but checking the label confirms the lack of authentic almond flavor.

Is this your stock orgeat syrup recipe, or do you purchase? It looks extremely tasty and easy to make. I think I’ll give it a try.

I read this article when it first came out but have put off making it for several months now. Finally this weekend we had to make some simple syrup, so we decided to try the orgeat too.

I live in a small town in Korea so it’s difficult to find any Western items. I was able to find almonds, but they were salted and unblanched, so the blanching required a bit of extra time too. Overall, with the setting and squeezing and blanching and cooking, this took a kinda long time to make, but hopefully the results will be well worth it (and besides, it was pretty fun too).

Three years ago, my wife Annette and me got stranded in France (and we live here since). Annette loves milk with Orgeat syrup and, one evening, she had the idea of adding some Pastis to her drink. WOW !

I call it the discovery of the century. What ? The discovery of the millenium !!!

Take a large tumbler and pour in two shot glasses of Pastis and one shot glass of Orgeat. Top up with ice cold full-fat milk ! (I like adding a large ice cube).

Annette deserves the Grand Order of the Empire in Gold with Crossed Wooden Spoons, Oak Leaves and Diamonds for her invention.

By Chris on March 26, 2007 10:58 PM

“Orgeat (pronounced “or-zat”�) is the French form of the word which originated from the Italian word orzata which means almond. The Spanish word Horchata or orxata has a similar origin.”

Are there any commercial orgeat syrups you can purchase that don’t have high fructose corn syrup or xantham gum in them?

By G. Dahl on May 24, 2008 8:50 PM

I was unable to find orgeat syrup at my local grocery stores. I did find Almond Oil (produced in France) labeled simply Huile d’amande by J. Leblanc. Could this be used in your recipe above to shortcut the extraction of oil from real almonds? If so, how much oil would you use in place of what is produced from 500 grams of blanched almonds?

By Dave K. on February 16, 2009 9:11 PM

Thanks for this post, it’s excellent. I used sliced blanched almonds from Trader Joe’s, and (not being a very patient person) simmered the almonds around 125 degrees for 15 – 20 minutes, which I repeated three times. The syrup came out velvety and flavorful. I added a bit of OFW and some cognac to stabilize. Thanks!

Almond milk won’t get you the same results, it has less of an almond flavour and isn’t sweet enough. Once you try real orgeat you’ll always want the real thing. Some things in life are worth the effort. Cheers!